Archive of Our Own ^beta

“You are such an asshole.” Gavin bristled at being caught, but the tension released as soon as he placed the voice. Tina stood to his right, peeking around his arm at the invitation in his hand. The colours were soft yellow and green. A cartoon giraffe standing on one side, bits of greenery on the other. Details on the event in easy-to-read script down the center.

“He’s going to murder you in your sleep,” Tina said, walking away from him to grab a mug from the cupboard.

“Bold of you to assume he’d wait until I’m sleeping,” Gavin replied. “And I honestly don’t know if he’ll be pissed or pleased.”

“My money is on pissed,” Tina replied, pouring the last of the fresh coffee into her mug. “He’s an android, not a literal one year old. It’s patronizing as shit, man.”

“So you’re saying you don’t want an invite?” he asked waving it around.

Her brows pinched, and she swiped it right out of his hand. “Of course I want an invitation to your funeral.” She sauntered by him, laughing as she tucked the invitation into the back pocket of her slacks.

——

Over the following weeks Gavin made a handful of discreet phone calls, updated the guest list of those who had responded, and hid supplies around the house increasingly questionable locations. It was difficult to hide everything from a specialized android who lived with him- but doing it was half the fun. He’d cut open the back of a milk carton, washed it out, and hid the balloons, and streamers stacked inside, and thrust it in the back of the refrigerator. Plastic table cloths were hidden between his jeans in his drawers. The sudden influx of lightweight bamboo plates was brushed off as Tina’s sister selling them as a side business, and he’d wanted to help out- which wasn’t even a lie, but he didn’t know what he was going to do with thirty bamboo plates when the party was over. The face paint and brushes were hidden in plain sight, mixed in with supplies Nines had purchased while sampling a multitude of hobbies trying to find something that fit- painting was not it, and there were half a dozen broken brushes to prove the android’s frustration with the task.

Gavin returned home with a pack of freshly printed photographs, and checked his watch as he kicked the door shut. Only a few minutes to spare; Connor had promised to keep Nines out of the house until exactly 6:45. He rushed to the bedroom, side-stepping Merlin, their black cat. He tucked the photographs under his socks, along with the spool of twine, and bag of clothes pins that was jammed into the back.

Merlin brushed against his leg as he walked by, turned and brushed against him once more. “Hey, little guy.” Gavin picked up the cat under his arms, and Merlin stretched out, showing off the white fur of his belly. “Big stretch!” he said fondly, Merlin scrambled once close enough, climbing up onto Gavin’s shoulders rather than remaining in his arms. He shouldn’t have let the Merlin get away with it when he was a kitten, it was uncomfortable having the much larger cat wrapped around his neck like the worlds most ridiculous scarf.

He walked into the kitchen with Merlin still around his shoulder, grabbed what ingredients he needed to make a stir-fry from the fridge, and was chopping at some vegetables when Nines walked in. He glanced over his shoulder in time to see Nines toe off his shoes, but returned his attention to his task. “Hey.”

“Hello.” Nines came up behind him, and kissed Gavin’s cheek, then the top of Merlin’s head. “Would you like some assistance?”

“I got it. Why don’t you take this cat off me, and relax.”

Nines took the cat, and Merlin once again scrambled until he was perched on Nines’s broad shoulders. The android spoke to the cat about his day, and Gavin rolled his eyes, all the while his heart was a flutter with how stupidly adorable it was. Gavin peeked into the living room, just to calm his nerves, making sure there was nothing that could be linked to the birthday party, but all he saw was Nines getting out his crochet needles and yarn, and Merlin’s green eyes glinting as his paw slowly reached out.

That would be Nines’s problem, and Gavin returned to the kitchen, only to hear a mildly-irritated. “Merlin, no! Please, leave that be!”

——

Connor came through once more, insisting that Nines accompany him to the aquarium from the hours of 1:30 to 3:30. They’d then have the drive back, ensuring enough time for guests to arrive and get situated in the backyard. A set of workers arrived, and Gavin directed them to the back corner of the lot. Chris arrived a few minutes later with his truck, and two large folding tables, which they set up in the back. Tina brought the food- her twin brothers had a catering business, and gave them a discount. Hank showed up with the helium that Gavin had ordered, and Gavin spent a good ten minutes trying to remember where he’d hidden the balloons. He threw the pack at Hank after he found them, and ran off with the streamers. He passed the green and yellow streamers to Chloe, and her three bodies got to work setting them up, weaving the colours around one another.

Elijah walked backwards into the yard, struggling to get keep the gate open, and carry the large box. Gavin ran off to help his half-brother. They set the box down, and Gavin checked inside; several water guns in different sizes were inside. “Nice.”

“I have another box in the car, and a box of water balloons. Pre-filled.”

“This is why I keep you around.”

Elijah rolled his eyes. “Just warn me before hand. If you get my suit wet, I’ll have to have you killed.”

“A tragedy,” Gavin replied dryly. He called Chris over, and ordered him to give Elijah a hand. He directed Tina to get the bamboo plates from the kitchen, and panicked over the time while he grabbed the photos, twine, and clothes pins.

One of Chloe’s bodies separated from the other two, and helped him set up the sections of twine between the outer posts of the deck. He split the pack of photographs, passing her half, and they got to work at pinning them to the twine. Chloe paused, smiled. “Oh, this one is so sweet.” Gavin paused in his section to look over. The one she held was one of his favourites too, Nines crouched down in front of Gavin’s niece Mallory, doing some strange secret handshake she’d made up. She hung it up next to one of Connor and Nines standing side by side with twin smirks on their faces.

The photo in Gavin’s hand was a selfie with the RK900, he’d been trying to get a good picture, but Nines hadn’t looked at the camera, and they’d ended up just looking at one another. The next pictures in his camera roll weren’t for sharing, but this one he clipped to the twine. He tried not to spend too much time looking at the other photographs knowing they were on a time limit.

“Is there anything else you need help with?” Chris asked.

“There is a bunch of face paint-”

“Uncle Gravy!” Mallory collided him, hugging him around the waist. She’d gotten taller than the last time he’d seen her.

“You’re seven now, kid, you can pronounce my name.”

His half-sister, Olivia just laughed. “Good luck on that one, Gravy.”

“You’re such a-”

“Watch it,” Olivia warned, pointing at the back of her daughter’s head.

Gavin rolled his eyes. “Face paint. It’s with-never mind, you do this, I’ll grab the paint.” Gavin passed the pictures to Chris, and promised his sister and niece he’d catch up with them later.

The last minute stragglers finally arrived, easing Gavin’s anxiety. Chris’s wife- Tori arrived with their toddler, Damian. Victor Allen came into the backyard with the ‘chaos Connor,’ Sixty. North and Simon arrived, while Markus and Josh were unable to attend due to a political meeting that couldn’t be rescheduled. Several of Nines’s friends, androids and humans he’d met over the past year trickled in, and after a quick count, the only guest not there was Connor, who sent a text which read ETA 5 MIN.

“Everyone quiet down! Five minutes!”

“It’s all set up,”  the worker said, passing Gavin the bill and leaving, hopefully in time. Everyone else had been instructed to park at the plaza down the street. They all stood around in the back yard, staring at the French doors at the back, waiting, waiting, waiting.

Finally the French doors opened, and everyone shouted a big, uncoordinated ‘Surprise! Happy birthday!’ at Nines. He stood in the doorway looking upon the scene in shock, his eyes not staying in one place for a second. Connor elbowed him, and that prompted him to finally take a few steps out onto the deck, but remained there.

Gavin joined Connor and Nines on the deck. “I was not born,” Nines said to him. “I cannot reasonably have a birthday.”

“Activation day then,” Gavin replied with a half-shrug

“You know I was activated in December, over a year ago.”

“Yeah, but fuck winter birthdays,” Gavin said, grabbing Nines’s hand. “Come on, it’ll be fun.”

Nines looked down at their joined hands, then out at their backyard. “You did all this for me?”

“Of course.”

“Is that a bounce house?”

“It’s a bounce castle, babe.” Gavin bumped his shoulder against Nines’s. “Only the best for you.”  

Nines laughed, leaned down just enough to give him a quick kiss, some of their guests hollering in response. “Go,” Gavin whispered against his lips. “Enjoy it.”

And there was plenty of enjoyment to be had. The human guests enjoyed the food. Mallory ran around, being a general terror, in leopard spot face paint Tina had put on her. North and an android were chatting. Sixty was playing with the face paint, but mostly just painting the inside of Allen’s forearm in an increasingly intricate mosaic. Music played out of the speakers connected to his phone. Chloe and Connor were dancing by a big cluster of balloons, other’s were joining in- Mallory dragged Simon into dancing with her. Olivia was talking with Elijah, their connection was through Gavin; Gavin who shared a father with Elijah, and a mother with Olivia.

Gavin moved through the guests, thanking people for coming. He finally spotted the birthday boy himself over by the deck, chatting with Hank, both of them looking at the string of photographs. Nines touched Gavin’s favourite, smiled, and looked over his shoulder- Gavin could tell he was scanning, and that he was what Nines had been looking for when the android stared at him, a soft smile on his face.

A hand grabbed his, pulling him out of the moment. Mallory tugged and laughed. “Come on! Dance with me!”

“No. Hard pass,” Gavin replied. “I don’t dance.”

“Dance, Dance Revolution says otherwise,” she said with the kind of attitude she definitely got from her mother.

And so he danced with Mallory, probably making a fool of himself, but it earned him good uncle points, so he was fine with it. Tina called him over after a few songs, and Mallory went to torment Chloe instead. “The cake is ready, you just need to find the birthday boy.”

“Is it weird that we got him a cake when he can’t eat it?” Gavin asked, second guessing himself.

“Look around, Gav,” Tina replied. “He’s got plenty of human friends who can eat it, and he’ll probably get a kick out of the entire make a wish thing- that or he will be super offended and kick you out of the house.”

He glared at her. “Thanks T. Great pep-talk.” He then took a look around the yard, a mess of people- human, and android. He walked around those who were dancing, skirted around those in conversation. Sixty had a small line of people getting their faces or arms painted. Allen stood nearby, chatting with Hank, Chris and Tori, all while holding a sleeping Damien, the boy’s cheek against his shoulder.

Ultimately, he found Nines bouncing in the castle along with a couple of other androids who had never experienced such a thing. Gavin crouched down to look through the opening. “Hey you, need you to come out a moment.”

“Make me,” was Nines’s immediate reply.

“I will.”

Nines bounced a few steps backward, a smile on his face.

 
“Fine, fine,” Gavin kicked off his shoes, and crawled in the tight space. He worried for a second about the weight limits. They were technically built for children, after all. He stood up, and the two other androids left.

He tried to take a couple steps toward Nines, but the soft ‘floor’ of the castle made it difficult to keep balance and he stumbled and fell to a knee.

Nines on the other hand kept moving, little bounces as he waited. “I thought you’d be better at this.”

“I haven’t been in one since I was like five years old, give me a break,” Gavin dove for Nines, missed entirely, he ended up sprawled face down, his body still bouncing a little because of Nines.

“I thought you were going to make me leave,” Nines said conversationally, his hands in the pockets of his slacks looking like an absolute professional while acting like a child.

Gavin got back up, jumped around, trying to catch Nines- the android laughing as he stayed just out of reach. When Gavin finally collided with him, he knew that it was unlikely that he’d managed to outmaneuver Nines, and it was more likely that Nines had simply allowed himself to be caught, but they tumbled down together, laughing, laying on their backs side by side.

“This has been fun,” Nines commented.

“Not done yet. You have go make a wish and blow out a candle,” Gavin said.

“Why?”

“Honestly, I don’t know, it’s just something we do.” Gavin sat up. “And after, we have a bunch of water guns.” Nines perked up at that- the same competitive edge that came out when they played lazer tag, or went paint-balling. Nines was easy to coax out after that.

Surrounded by friends, and the family he’d chosen, Nines blew out the candle on the cake. “You’re supposed to let us sing ‘Happy Birthday’ first,” Tina whined.

“Why would I?” Nines asked. “You have a terrible singing voice.”

“Nines!” Tina sucker punched him in the arm. “You’re such a dick.”

While some of the guests enjoyed cake, Nines unwrapped the gifts that had been stacked up on a table. There were clothes, a watch (while he always knew the time anyway, he did like wearing them as an accessory,) a new wallet, a few vinyl records for his growing collection, a big fancy pad of Origami paper, a few bracelets of leather and metal, a couple of books, and a pair of stylish sunglasses which he immediately tried on.

When everyone had finished their cake, there were a few goodbyes. Chris and Tori needed to get the baby home, and get him ready for bed. A few androids took their leave. Elijah went inside, refusing to get his suit wet, Hank joined him, having no desire to be running around and getting drenched.

 The water guns were broken out of the boxes, water balloons were scattered around the lawn, and chaos reigned. Being that some of them were cops made the game far more competitive; Gavin even caught Allen using tactical hand gestures to Sixty as the two of them worked collaboratively.

Olivia ran over screeching after being shot at by Simon, she ducked behind Gavin, and used him as a human shield. Simon soaked him before North with the biggest water gun in the collection shot at Simon. “You traitor,” he laughed, putting his arms up, and turning his face away from the spray.

Mallory laughed in delight, and threw a water balloon, it hit Sixty in the back, and the android turned, and held the water pistol out with one hand. “Surrender, Child.”

“Never!” she yelled at him, before running off toward Connor, Sixty grabbed one of the water balloons and stalked after her.

“She’s like eight years old, Six,” Allen shouted at him.

“She’s older than I am,” Sixty replied.

Nines whipped a blue balloon, and it burst on the back of Sixty’s head. Sixty turned around and retaliated, throwing the balloon he’d been saving and it hit Nines in the face. Gavin burst out laughing. Nines attention redirected. “You think this is funny?”

“Hilarious,” Gavin replied, before he took off running with Nines hot on his tail.

By the time the water guns had all emptied, and the balloons were all used, everyone was soaked. Chloe wrung out her hair on one body, the hem of her dress on another, while the third laughed and leaned into an equally soaked Connor. The paint that Allen had on his body had mixed with the water, so he had streaks of blue, black and red down his arm- which had also ended up in a patch on Sixty’s shirt from their rough-housing later in the water fight. Tina had one of the towels  in hand, offering it to Olivia.

People started to leave shortly after, Nines thanking them for coming. Gavin said goodbye to his sister and niece, promising to visit in the next couple of weeks- and yes, he’d bring Nines. Sixty and Nines held each other’s wrists for a moment, their skin peeled back. Nines grinned as their connection broke. “Take care, Six.”

“You too, Nines.” Sixty grabbed Allen’s hand, and tugged. “Come on, we’re going to miss that serial killer documentary!” Allen gave a wave, and let himself be pulled along by Sixty’s will.

The rest of their friends and family trickled off as it got later until it was down to just the two of them. They both changed into some dry clothes before heading back into the yard to do a bit of clean up with the porch lights on. Gavin tried to find all the pieces of the balloons, but Nines stopped him. “I’ll do it tomorrow,” he promised. “You can’t see well enough to find them all anyway.”

Gavin scowled, but the expression fell when Nines started to drag him across the still wet lawn toward the bounce castle. Gavin smirked a bit, and kicked off his shoes before they both went inside. The jumping around was short lived, Gavin too tired to put up a good fight and went down easily when Nines gave him a tug. They both laid on the ground and Gavin startled a little as the porch lights went out. “Relax, I did it.” Nines had connected to pretty much everything in their house, and Gavin rolled his eyes.

They both stared up at the sky, framed by the ballooned walls, the moon was a sliver in the sky, stars fighting against the light pollution of the city.

“Well,” Gavin asked, as his fingers interlocked with Nines’s. “What did you think about your first birthday?”

“It will be interesting to see how you try to top it next year.”

“Next year?” Gavin hadn’t thought of that. “Next year you’re getting socks. Nothing else. Do you know how hard this was to pull off?”

Nines laughed. “How did you manage to keep all of this a surprise?”

Gavin rolled onto his side, rested his chin on Nines’s chest. “With great difficulty. You went into the fridge the other day when you were going to make me a coffee and I thought it was all over.”

“That’s why you got so pissy when I was going to make you coffee?” Nines looked delighted. “What were you hiding in the fridge?”

“Balloons, and streamers.”

Nines brow pinched. “Where?”

“Inside an old milk carton, I’d cleaned it, cut out the back. You don’t drink- I didn’t think you’d be in the fridge enough to notice.”

“You’re ridiculous.” However, Nines must have liked the idea because he gave him a quick kiss. “I love you.”

“Love you too, Nines. Happy birthday.”

Nines’s arm around him tightened, and Gavin happily sunk into the embrace.